I have a .75 acres pond in my back yard that has been somewhat of a work in progress. It is kidney shaped with an 8' deep pool and a 10' deep pool with the center being about 5' deep. The first year we filled it (drought year) it didnt' hold water so we pumped it out and lined it with bentonite. I'm not sure if we stocked it that fall or not but I don't think we did.
Move forward to 2013. The pond is doing much better at holding water as I only have to run the pump about once every 2-3 weeks to maintain an "attractive" level. We stocked it with 1-2" bluegill and minnows in Spring. We didn't see any fish activity all summer so we added about 200 more in August. About that time we also started seeing our original bluegill congregating along the shore line and some were upwards of 6". An areator was added with a difuser in each deep pool.
2014 was a rough year for the pond. Spring rains over filled it several times and my dam failed, dropping the level of the pond by about 3-4' in a matter of minutes. To make matters worse a large amount of water ran through the pond for at least an additional 24 hours. To make it worse, after I was able to temporarily repair the dam it washed away again and it wasn't until mid to late July that we were able to repair it again, fill it, and try our luck at fishing. We caught nothing and believed our fish were all gone. We restocked with 300 bluegill and minnows last fall. I also added an automatic fish feeder.
2015 brought more heavy rains but the dam held this time when it overflowed. The water is muddy from the runoff but I know we have many 1-3" bluegill and tons of minnows. The reason I know we have bluegill is because I had to rescue them from some stagnant backwaters several weeks ago. We have also discovered that we have bullhead and about a month ago stocked it with 37 3-4" largemouth.
I still only see minnow activity around the shoreline. Never any signs of the bass or bluegill. I've been trapping 3-6" bullhead in a minnow trap for several weeks now to the tune of close to 200. When the fish feeder runs or I throw out feed the minnows go crazy but nothing else. This is how I first noticed the bullhead but the trapping has evidently reduced their numbers and I don't see them feeding on the surface any longer. I'm feeding "Trophy Fish Food" from Orschelns about 10 seconds twice a day but they will eat more and more if I provide it.
I'm not a pond expert and need to know what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right. I do have plans of doing some somewhat major dirt work to significantly reduce the amount of watershed that comes to the pond but that may not happen until fall and harvest is done.
